Monday, July 4, 2011

Udaipur love

We set out of Puskhar on a long, hot, bumpy 5 hour bus ride to Jodhpur. Arrived tired, took an auto to a hotel we found in LP. Wow. This rickshaw went up these tiny narrow streets where we;'re fighting pedestrians, motorbikes, other autos, small cars, dogs and a shit ton of cows. I have never seen so many in my life! The Cosy Guest House was super cute and had wifi!

Jodhpur was a beautiful city; all the buildings are painted indigo (The Blue City) because, we learned on our audio tour of the fort, it keeps the buildings cool and deters mosquitoes. The fort was breathtaking. It's a huge structure on the top of a mountain over looking the entire city. The tour was amazing; lots of swords, cool rooms, even a live musical performance. For our one year anniversary we went to a wonderful, expensive (~$20!! That's 3 nights in a hotel! ha) rooftop dinner at Indique. It definitely had the best views of the city; you could see the fort, the clock tower, the palace and a ghat. After dinner and we bought wine!!!! I had't had wine since Korea! We chilled it and enjoyed it with a Cadbury chocolate on the roof of our hotel. Bliss. But, alas, the city was crowded. And narrow. And really really hilly. After 2 days we figured we had seen enough.

Sunday at 7:30 am we boarded a "deluxe" bus. Don't be fooled, there is nothing spectacular about this bus except the fact we had our own seats. And above the seats were sleeper seats; think luggage racks made for people. No AC, only open windows. Oh let me share something fun about open windows on old run down buses that drive down bumpy countryside roads; they let puke in. I'm not joking, no less than 4 people puked out the bus windows mid-trip. 2 of which splattered onto my face. Seriously. EW! Half way through this and I thought I was going to lose it. 7 hours later and we arrived, thank god, in Udaipur.

So I said before Pushkar was our favorite, well, Udaipur pushes it to second. This place is magical! Super beautiful, no annoyances, and Western/Indian fusion. We've even seen a few places that have Korean food ("No kimchi now, wait til season starts.").

Last night we sat atop our rooftop, over looking the lake. Spectacular at sunset! Then right around dusk the bats came. I'm talking hundreds of thousands of giant bats! Paul and I sat awestruck for an hour as the bats came rushing by! They leave from the South and fly into the mountains for the night! I can't wait to watch and take pictures tonight. Not too long after and the fireworks show began! Apparently it's every night and in high season goes on for an hour!

Our hotel owner somehow talked us into cooking lessons at our hotel, "You cook and then eat it." We agreed last night for today at 2:30. Saw the owner this morning and confirmed. Come 2:30 and the cook is passed out in his room. Another manager wakes him up, "Now, not a good time. 7 a good time. 10am tomorrow a good time." Wait we didn't even want to do this class and now you're bailing on us!? WTF! Tomorrow at 10am it is. Oh and we went in the kitchen to look for him and saw the raw chicken, in a plastic bag, on the counter. It's 35 degrees here! So if you don't hear from me for a few days, blame salmonella.

Tonight we're heading over to the Namaste hotel for a free showing of Octopussy. Apparently it was filmed right here on the lake, so almost all of the hotels have a show. Movie and chicken pizza, Asa! We're not leaving this place!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Pichola